Australia, India to play five-Test series in new international schedule

While the women’s international schedule released yesterday is packed enough to be interesting but not too packed to be unmanageable, the men’s Future Tours program is bursting at the seams with appointments – and that’s before even considering the growing number of national ones T20 tournaments, an ICC event every year and the ever-growing IPL.

Here are some of the key aspects that will influence the Australian men’s team.

Test series between Australia and India will be increased to five games

The Border-Gavaskar Trophy has produced some exciting series with India on the rise in recent years – they won at home in 2017 before winning back-to-back series in Australia in the summers of 2018-19 and 2020-21.

The next series, played in India next February-March, will be the last time the two countries play a four-Test series, with both boards capitalizing on the competition’s popularity by increasing the number of Tests to five . This puts them on par with Ashes and England v India and few would argue the move is unjustified given the interest the rivalry is attracting in both countries and the cricket world at large.

At a time when the T20 giants are becoming the driving force in global cricket, the move to add to any series is welcome, especially when it comes to the immensely powerful BCCI.

It’s also a convenient move for Cricket Australia, which is contractually obliged to make five tests available to broadcast rights holders each summer, as they don’t have to find candidates for a cumbersome one-off test.

“If we’ve had four tests, certainly in Australia because we want five summers of testing and the one extra is a little bit, you know what do we do with that?” said Peter Roach, Cricket Australia’s head of cricket operations and scheduling. “Reaching five was a great result for us because we play five tests in the summer and they are all against India now.

And we wanted to raise the status of the Border Gavaskar tests like we’re doing with the Ashes because we think it’s worthy, there’s been some great competition and there will be some again.”

To visit India or England every summer

Speaking of India, Australian fans will be seeing a lot more of them and so will England. One of the two countries will play in one format or another each game year in the Australian Summer between now and 2026/27.

India tours in particular are CA’s top revenue generators, followed by England in second place. Over a four-year cycle, summers of testing against these sides fund leaner financial seasons with other countries.

CA hopes that having one of these sites in Australia gives them more security and better money distribution every year.

“Sometimes you think four years ahead, maybe that’s a weaker streak, but then the opposition closes in and suddenly it’s a great streak,” Roach said. “So the plan is to try and separate white ball and testing but there are a number of reasons for that.

“One so you can have them at different times of the year but we know they’ve been in one place for a long time and that was the evolving schedule we’re seeing now, they’ll come in for the white ball and then ‘I will come another time for tests, and this does not only concern these three countries, but also others.

“Just to reduce that so that players, coaches and staff can come home for a time and then leave again. There’s a bit of science behind it, certainly spreading your content. We often hear this is a good year and a bad year, but it certainly helps spread the word.”

More T20 Internationals, ODIs stay here

While there have been some calls for T20 cricket to be restricted to domestic franchises outside of ICC events, the game is moving in the opposite direction and a number of Australian T20 series have been increased from the usual three games to five.

The context and relevance of bilateral white ball cricket is arguably an issue, particularly with the ICC dropping next year’s ODI World Series.

Qualification for the ODI World Championship is purely based on placement, so Boards need to ensure they play enough to not have to go through a qualifying tournament.

But the short format is very popular with broadcasters and committees around the world wanting to capitalize on its success.

“It’s a bit logical that if you go somewhere for three T20s, and what we’ve seen during COVID you don’t change venues, you can probably play a few more within three games and they’re over with one Finger snaps,” Roach said. So there’s a bit of a feeling that five is a good number for some series.

“In terms of the T20 leagues and such, we know that international cricket is hugely popular.

“Certainly T20 has a presence around the world, while some countries don’t have the same love and passion for Test cricket as we do, in the T20s and ODIS they still have a very strong commitment to their countries.

“So we see them coexisting with the T20 leagues. I think we all recognize that there is a lot of cricket but all countries see the benefit of playing these series.”

Australia’s Divided Summer

2026/27 will be a highly unusual summer. Australia will play three Tests against New Zealand, the last of which will be the traditional Sydney Test in the New Year at the SCG. The Test team will then travel direct to India for a five-Test series and then return home for two Tests against Bangladesh in March.

CA make a huge concession to the BCCI, once again showing the power of the Indian board by splitting up their home Test summer and extending it into the fall, when public attention is more focused on the NRL and AFL. Significantly, there may also be conflicts with preparations for the IPL, potentially impacting player availability for this series.

It also negates CA’s desire to provide tryouts for the BBL, which is evident in other seasons where few or no internationals are scheduled.

“I think the point is justified in that I don’t recall them playing friendly games away in January,” admitted Roach. “But that’s the trade-off, you know, having five India Test wins on one hand and really improving the streak.

“It’s a great home performance and we really need to go away and play them at a time that’s also suitable for the Indian team, so that’s the window of opportunity.

“We acknowledge, well, is it perfect? The answer is we don’t know. We’d love to be two weeks later but if it was two weeks later we wouldn’t have time to do the tests so that’s the real balancing act, home content is great but there’s a two-way side to it too.”